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December Ramble: [December
2002.] Kunsu SHIM: relations (1995), Chamber
Piece No. 1 (1994); Burkhard SCHLOTHAUER: 64 events
(1998); Manfred WERDER: bassflöte bassklarinette viola violoncello (1998); Carlo
INDERHEES: ZWEIUNDZWANZIG MINUTEN (Septett)1 (1997-98). Ensemble Q - O2: Myriam Graulus (flutes), Dirk
De Scheemaeker (clarinets), Lucy Graumann (alto), Micheline Dumortier (guitar), Silvia Tentori
Montalto (violin), Julia Eckhardt
(viola), Gabriella Strümpel
(cello). Edition Wandelweiser Records EWR 0104 (http://www.timescraper.de/). More
notes do not necessarily mean better music. There’s wisdom in the cliché that
less is more. But even less is not even more; even less can be almost
nothing. NMC releases somewhat mainstream contemporary fare, but Edition
Wandelweiser Records produces discs that could
exasperate the most experienced and open-minded listener. Many of the
composers who are represented on Wandelweiser
embrace silence and tend toward sounds made by nonstandard
methods of play or production. Tempos are generally slow and dynamics usually
soft, and each sound is the most important event at
that moment, as if there have been no sounds before and will be none to come.
Four
composers who are part of the Wandelweiser group
present five pieces on a disc featuring Ensemble Q - O2 (EWR 0104).
The Wandelweiser group makes no apologies about the
"experimental" and "radical" — words taken from the
booklet — nature of this music. There are no themes or cadenzas, virtuosity
is banished. The only things remaining are musicians creating sounds. Imagine
the coarseness of Lachenmann combined with the
wide-open spaces of Feldman. Actually, Feldman could have used some of the
titles himself, and some of the works take Feldman’s gestures to an extreme
of stasis. Kunsu Shim’s relations,
for violin, viola and cello, opens with silvery sul
ponticello notes and stays on the edge of
the barely audible. Most of the notes are harmonics or played sul ponticello,
but there are a few ordinario cello
notes. It’s short at 5:06 but it speaks volumes, compared to Shim’s other
work on this disc. At four seconds long (yes, 0:04), Shim’s Chamber
Piece No. 1 might be the shortest track on any CD. There are six
credited players (voice, flute, clarinet, violin, viola and cello), though
the strings are hard to hear under the two high-pitched wind notes. I don’t
think Shim was trying to out-Webern Webern (actually, out-Kurtáging
Kurtág is more like it). He wanted to create an
intense moment of music, pregnant with expectation. Burkhard
Schlothauer, mentioned here
before, is represented with 64 Events for voice and string
trio. Despite the title, this is not the sort of piece that you count your
way through. It opens with a throat-scarring rasp. After a pause, instruments
and voice come together to make different chords and timbres. Gentle chords,
rough clusters, humming sounds or single string tones are separated by wide
silences. At some places, it sounds as if the performance instructions demand
that a note be played as slowly as possible so that the bow’s frail quaver at
absurdly slow speeds becomes part of the sound. Manfred
Werder’s composition bassflöte
bassklarinette viola violoncello is similar
to Schlothauer’s except the pitches occur singly,
one after another. I heard no simultaneities at all. Every pitch is an oasis,
and some have subtle tone changes or glissandi. If there is a tune, or if two
neighboring pitches have a relationship, then I
missed it. Carlo Inderhees’ ZWEIUNDZWANZIG
MINUTEN is pretty much as titled. For 22 minutes seven players create
short and quiet events that hover around the same chord. It’s a bit like
watching paint dry as the sun sets and the room gradually grows dark. Ensemble
Q - O2 plays with flair and confidence. Hecklers would have a field day at
their live performances. Ensemble Q - O2 plays music for folks who like to be
challenged. On this recording, without audience noise, this music comes
across very earnestly and convincingly. |
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